The Queen pays someone to break in her shoes

Wearing in your shoes is shit, isn’t it. Have you ever tried to wear in a pair of Doc Martens? Agony. Constant agony for weeks on end.

If you’re struggling to wear your new shoes in, though, there are a few solutions. One: wait it out and hope for the best. Two: try a life hack. Putting deodorant in your shoes, buying insoles, taking a hairdryer to your shoes: all suggestions floating about online to help you deal with the problem.

Orrrr: you could literally pay someone to wear your shoes for you?

It might sound ridiculous, and that’s because IT IS RIDICULOUS. But it’s also what the Queen does, apparently.

According to Stewart Parvin, the Queen’s dressmaker for the last 11 years, Her Maj’s shoes “have to be immediately comfortable”.

“She does get someone to wear them. The Queen can never say ‘I’m uncomfortable, I can’t walk anymore’,” he says.

A member of the Royal staff is instructed to wear a “pair of beige cotton ankle socks” whilst wearing the £1,000 shoes in “and must only walk on the carpet during the ‘breaking in’ period”, the Evening Standard reports, though it’s not clear whether the employee already works for the family or if they’re specially hired to wear the shoes.

Parvin says the job is important because the Queen “has the right” to have someone wear her shoes in, which kind of stretches the concept of a “right”, to be honest.